Three Choices Usopp Never Made
by thewordweaves
Summary: As the title suggests, drabble-y AUs about decisions that Usopp never made in canon, one of which containing Kaya/Usopp. Written for a meme on Plurk.  Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Usopp didn't have to apologize and go back to the Strawhat crew. He'd do all right, here in Water 7. They wouldn't really need him. He knew that now. Perhaps rescuing Robin would have been more difficult without his assistance, but at the end of the day he was nothing special and he was certain he wouldn't be missed - he watched the crew go about their business and party as seemingly happy as ever, and their backs were turned to him as he stood on the docks. He opened his mouth to call out their names -

And saw Franky, shipwright and sniper all in one, who counted as a crewmate because he had fought alongside them, but didn't they remember the way he had demolished their skinny, weak sniper, didn't they want to wait for him? But what use did that collection of odd, wonderful, amazing people have with a guy like him?

The words died in his throat and he watched them go. In their shiny new ship, they'd soon forget about him. He apprenticed himself to a carpenter at the behest of the weeping Franky Family, who welcomed the help. It was an okay life, but with every day that went past, something bitter and twisted he kept buried deep in his gut like a small creature in its cage got loose and grew and grew and grew. Before he thought about these things every once in a while and they spiraled ever downwards until Luffy or Chopper dispelled them with a glance. Now, it was harder to keep the thoughts truly at bay. A scant six months later, he impressed a large pirate crew with his sniping skills, and they gladly took him on board.

That was the dream, right? Not to be a man who traveled the seas with the pirate king - because Luffy would be the pirate king, whether he was with him or not, that was a fact - but to be a man of the sea. He wasn't unhappy, but some days he would stare out at the sea as he did as he waited for his father, and wished to see his captain's wild grin and the faces of his crewmates once more.

Maybe if he tried hard enough and proved himself, maybe they would take him back.


	2. Chapter 2

It's just the nature of boys to bully, and Usopp is a particularly good target. He gives as good as he gets and he doesn't tend to go off crying because of a perceived slight. Besides, he's an odd looking boy when all is said and done, all buggy round eyes and long nose and sun-browned skinny limbs that he can't quite manage to keep track of. He's like a damn baby deer, tripping over his own too-big feet.

Usopp is proud of his father, but sometimes the words of boys get under his skin more than he would like, and he begins to wonder why it is a man would decide to abandon his wife and child. Why not for just one visit? Perhaps then she would not have died, perhaps then Usopp would have a family. And he left - for what? He never heard any of the sailors who came into their humble little village utter the name of Yasopp! His Mama told him to stop with the foolish stories when he had been trying, but instead he kept on reaching towards the invisible man that nevertheless cast a long shadow over his life and impossibly huge shoes to fill, kept on trying to make a man he's never met in his life proud.

So one day, when the boys talk about his father, he carefully says, "No, I don't like that old man," and the others go dead silent and he stares down at his shoes, decides on smaller dreams, on making Mama proud instead of his father, but he can never quite shake the shrieking voice in the back of his head urging, _you were meant to be a pirate_.


	3. Chapter 3

He's been seeing Kaya for a while now and is astonished to realize that he likes her, like-likes her in a way he's never liked anyone else before. Why wouldn't he? She is kind and compassionate and well mannered and charming and pretty and smart and probably the total opposite of him but she listens to his stories and smiles that dazzling smile at him anyway. Which just about makes his heart leap out of his chest, because he's not used to being smiled at, not like that. He's not used to people being that happy to see him.

And then things get weird, because every time he sees her it's like he's going to _die_ and he ends up babbling stupidly (how can she like that? But she smiles anyway! It's unfair, being that wonderful) and then he blurts out, "Hey Kaya, I like you," which probably isn't the way to do it. He should wax poetic about, about her eyes or smile or ears or something, but she turns bright red and agrees that yes, she rather likes him too and then they try to kiss but his nose gets in the way and as soon as he hears Merry's footsteps he falls out of the tree.

Two days later (they still have not figured out how to navigate the whole nose thing, and this really wasn't a problem he saw coming, mostly on account of the fact that he never thought about a girl wanting to kiss him), Klahadore shows his true colours, Luffy and Zoro and Nami sweep in like the wind, and Usopp is left with a decision.

"I have to go with them," he tells her and tries not to cry, "but promise you won't wait for me, okay?"

And she promises, and his heart kind of hurts, but his dreams are important in a way he can hardly shape words around. He doesn't think he'll ever meet anyone like Kaya again, no sweet soul to listen to his babbling and actually find it charming, but he cannot ask her to wait. He has been waiting for seventeen long years and would never inflict that on another.

He wonders if she's found someone else some days, hand placed firmly on the Sunny, someone who is large and noble and nothing like her knock-kneed country boy with the long nose and the quavering voice.


End file.
